Delivering culturally safe health care Case Study Assessment

Institutional responsibility

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the first peoples of Australia and it is responsibility of each and every healthcare organization to provide them culturally safe healthcare. This can be done by educating and empowering the staff about the practice of providing culturally safe and appropriate healthcare without being unintentionally racist and having predefined notions towards the patients. The joint statement by Public Health Association of Australia, Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association, National Rural Health Alliance and Consumers Health Forum Australia have provided a framework for culturally safe practices of healthcare for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The framework says that the health professionals should reflect towards their practices, behaviour and beliefs and avoid issues such as institutional racism so as to provide culturally safe practices to the Aboriginals and Strait Islander people. This is important as many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have found that the health services are biased and unwelcoming towards them as seen in the behaviour of Mary in the case. It is important that provider and the patient should have knowledge and understanding about each other’s culture. This is especially important for the remote hospitals and community centres in the rural and the regional areas where there is a large proportion of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people. It is important that the health services should communicate and liaison with the local communities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for supporting the health services and providing them in a culturally appropriate manner.

Advocacy

Due to the complex healthcare system in today’s era, the patients are not able to keep the record of the treatment plans, various specialists, confusing medical bills and the insurance coverage issues. Health advocacy helps in easing the burdens of the patients while navigating through the healthcare system. In this case, advocacy is important for the Aboriginals and and Torres Strait Islander people so that they can easily undergo the diagnosis and treatment options. Also, sometimes it is difficult for them to take full advantage of the facilities given by health insurance coverage due to lack of awareness about the plans and benefits provided by the government. The healthcare advocates help in educating the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for giving well informed decisions about their health conditions, providing access to the healthcare and guiding them through the medical care administrative and legal task. The Australian & New Zealand College Of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) helps in advocating for health care of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by involving the communities for the development of the policies, decision making and interacts the medical colleges in Australia and New Zealand for advocating for the health care of the aboriginals. operations. The government of Australia has provided various primary care programs for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people such as free annual health check -ups after every 9 to 12 months, treating ear and eye diseases and supporting healthy lifestyle and family health by providing healthy food to mother and babies during the pregnancy.

Communication

Communication is a very important factor in providing improved healthcare service to the patients absence of which can lead to health disparity. Many clinicians have stated that the providing the healthcare service to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can be improved by giving the communication training to the staff emphasising on verbal and non verbal communications. The major areas that should be focused are cultural beliefs, knowledge of their culture. Therefore, a tailored training program for developing the communication skills is important in giving the quality service to the indigenous people. In the above mentioned case study, David was in stress as he was not aware about the whereabouts of his sister. Mary was not able to comprehend the mental stress and problem of David due to communication gap and therefore could not help him in solving his problem. Also, the verbal comment about the skin colour of David could have caused uneasiness in the patient. This can be seen by action of David by pulling his arm. Therefore, it is important to be polite and sensitive to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It is important to develop the cultural competence and cultural understanding between the healthcare providers and the indigenous population. Maintaining the appropriate body language with the community members is also important for treating them with respect and care.

Partnerships

The Department of Health and aged care of Australian Government is working in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for making strategies, policies, programmes and initiatives for improving the health of the community. In context of this, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2021–2031 has been setup for guiding the health policies and initiatives for development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for next 10 years. Specialized local health service and community centers are available all the time through online and telephone health services. Organisations such as Aboriginal community controlled health care organizations (ACCHOs) help the health care professionals such as midwives and nurses to provide healthcare to the indigenous people in a culturally appropriate manner. Partnering win the Indigenous Health Liaison Officers can also help in providing the support for the patient and his family in providing advocacy and education about the health care. This will help in improving the trust between the healthcare services and the patients and can increase the satisfaction of the patients. The Council of Presidents of Medical College has signed agreement with Australian government in May 2017 for working with the major bodies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people so that the gaps in the life expectancy and the health outcomes between the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non indigenous Australians can be filled. In this case study Mary should have partnered with any indigneous health staff to understand the mental and physical situation of the patient and that would helped in providing better care service.

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